Team Movistar Eye Grand Tour Glory in 2013

MADRID, Jan 12, 2013 (AFP) – Spanish team Movistar set their sights on
Grand Tour glory in 2013 under the leadership of resurgent climber Alejandro
Valverde as they unveiled their new team line-up Friday.

“With a leader like Alejandro we can only think about podium finishes in
the Grand Tours and that is what we are betting on,” said the team’s manager
Eusebio Unzue.

Valverde, who won the Tour of Spain in 2009 and came second in 2012 after
returning from a two-year ban for doping, said the team would go all out in
the Tour de France, in which he won the last mountain stage in 2012.

“We are going to give everything in that” in 2013, he said at Friday’s
presentation. “Then there is the Vuelta and the World Championship, which is
very hard, but we will see whether any of these aims turns out well and we can
achieve something.”

To help Valverde and fellow team stalwarts such as Pablo Lastras, Juan Jose
Cobo and Jose Joaquin Rojas do so, the team presented five new riders
including Eros Capecchi, a 26-year-old Italian who has ridden five times in
the Giro d’Italia.

Other stars retained in the team are Andrey Amador, 26, who won a stage in
the Giro last year and Portuguese rider Rui Costa who finished 18th overall in
the Tour de France — ahead of Valverde in 20th.